Web Development

DareNET Development Wiki - Web Development

Here we'll attempt to explain the process we'll be using to develop the next generation of the DareNET web site. We will rely heavily on community interaction, whether through the forums or on IRC (#dev). IRC is perhaps the best place to find members of the development team and discuss ideas, latest code and make general comments.

MVC

The goal is for website-darenet to follow the Model-View-Controller (MVC) software design pattern. We'll take a brief look at what that means here.

Programming using MVC separates your application into three (3) main parts:

The Model represents the application data.
The View renders a presentation of model data.
The Controller handles and routes requests made by the client.

A basic MVC request.

The figure above shows an example of a bare-bones MVC request. To illustrate, assume a client named 'Joe' just clicked on the 'Register a channel' link on the application's home page. Spelled out, here's what may have happened:

Joe clicks the link pointing to http://www.darenet.org/register/channel, and his browser makes a request to the web server.
The dispatcher checks the request URL (/register/channel), and hands the request to the correct controller.
The controller performs application specific logic. For example, it may check to see if Joe has logged in.
The controller also uses models to gain access to the application's data. Models usually represent database tables, but they could also represent LDAP entries, RSS feeds or files on the system. In this example, the controller uses a model to fetch a list of channels already registered to Joe from a services query.
Once the controller has worked its magic on the data, it hands it to view. The view takes this data and gets it ready for presentation to the client. Views in website-darenet will mostly likely be in HTML format, but a view could just as easily be a PDF, XML document or JSON object depending on needs.
Once the view has used the data from the controller to build a fully rendered view, the content of that view is returned to Joe's browser.

Almost every request to a website-darenet application will follow this basic pattern. We'll add some details later on which are specific to website-darenet, so keep this in mind as we proceed.

= Why MVC?

Because it is a tried and true software design pattern that turns an application into a maintainable, modular, rapidly developed package. Crafting application tasks into separate models, views and controllers will make website-darenet light on its feet. New features can then be easily added, and new faces on old features are a snap. The modular and separate design will also allow for developers and designers to work simultaneously, including the ability to rapidly prototype. Separation will also allow developers to make changes in one part of website-darenet without affecting others.

Coding Standards

Adding New Features

No new features should be added to trunk, without having their own tests - which should be passed before committing them to the repository. Any additions to stable should undergo a team vote.

Braces

Braces should always be placed on lines of their own and match up vertically with their partner.

For example: <source lang="php" line start=1 > if (is_array($dns)) {

 $dnsInfo = &$dns;

} </source>

Indentation

One tab will be used for indentation.

So, indentation should look like this:

<source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php // base level

   // level 1
       // level 2
   // level 1

// base level ?> </source>

Or:

<source lang="php" line start=1 > $booleanVariable = true; $stringVariable = "moose"; if ($booleanVariable) {

 echo "Boolean value is true";
 if ($stringVariable == "moose")
 {
   echo "We have encountered a moose";
 }

}</source>

Function Calls

Functions should be called without space between function's name and starting bracket. There should be one space between every parameter of a function call.

As you can see above there should be one space on both sides of equals sign (=). To increase the readability of the code you can add spaces (or tabs) before the equals sign, but only in the case of a multiple function call presented below:

Commenting Code

All comments should be written in English, and should in a clear way describe the commented block of code.

Comments can include the following phpDocumentor tags:

PhpDoc tags are very much like JavaDoc tags in Java. Tags are only processed if they are the first thing in a DocBlock line, for example: <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php /**

* Tag example.
* @author this tag is parsed, but this @version is ignored
* @version 1.0 this tag is also parsed

/

?></source>

There are 3 inline tags ({@internal}}, {@inheritdoc}} and {@link}}). <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php /**

* Example of inline phpDoc tags.
*
* This function works hard with {@link foo()} to rule the world.
*/

function bar() { } function foo() { } ?></source>

Including Files

When including files with classes or libraries, use only and always the require_once function.

PHP Tags

Always use long tags (<?php ?>) Instead of short tags (<? ?>).

Functions

Write all functions in camel case. <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php function longFunctionName() { } ?></source>

Classes

Class names should be written in CamelCase, for example: <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php class ExampleClass { } ?></source>

Variables

Variable names should be as descriptive as possible, but also as short as possible. Normal variables should start with a lowercase letter, and should be written in camelBack in case of multiple words. Variables containing objects should start with a capital letter, and in some way associate to the class the variable is an object of. Example: <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php $user = 'John'; $users = array('John', 'Hans', 'Arne'); $Dispatcher = new Dispatcher(); ?></source>

Compatibility

Support for PHP 4 was discontinued over a year ago. We will assume the latest stable release of PHP 5 is running, and as such, will write code with that in mind.

Example Addresses

For all example URL and mail addresses use "example.com", "example.org" and "example.net", for example:

Email: someone@example.com
WWW: http://www.example.com
FTP: ftp://ftp.example.com

File Names

File names should be created with lower case. If a file name consist of multiple words, they should be divided by an underscore character, for example:

long_file_name.php

Variable Types

Variable types for use in DocBlocks:

mixed	A variable with undefined (or multiple) type.
integer	Integer type variable (whole number).
float	Float type (point number).
boolean	Logical type (true or false).
string	String type (any value in "" or ' ').
array	Array type.
object	Object type.
resource	Resource type (returned by for example mysql_connect()).

Remember that when you specify the type as mixed, you should indicate whether it is unknown, or what the possible types are.

Constants

Constants should be defined in capital letters: <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php define('CONSTANT', 1); ?></source>

If a constant name consists of multiple words, they should be separated by an underscore character, for example: <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php define('LONG_NAMED_CONSTANT', 2); ?></source>

Method Definition

Example of a function definition: <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php function someFunction($arg1, $arg2 = ) {

 if (expr)
 {
   statement;
 }
 return $var;

} ?></source>

Parameters with a default value, should be placed last in function definition. Try to make your functions return something, at least true or false - so it can be determined whether the function call was successful. <source lang="php" line start=1 > <?php function connection(&$dns, $persistent = false) {

 if (is_array($dns))
 {
   $dnsInfo = &$dns;
 }
 else
 {
   $dnsInfo = BD::parseDNS($dns);
 }
 if (!($dnsInfo) || !($dnsInfo['phpType']))
 {
   return $this->addError();
 }
 return true;